Namazee Villa

If they want to build a hotel, they still can preserve the villa. It’s an added value.

Faryar Javaherian

A large private home designed by Italian architect Giovanni (Gio) Ponti in the 1950s, the Namazee Villa is slated for demolition to make way for a new hotel on the site. It is one of the few unaltered buildings by Ponti remaining in the Middle East, featuring period ceramics by the artist Fausto Melotti in the open central courtyard. “Why not incorporate it into the design of the new hotel?” asks Iranian architect Faryar Javaherian. Sadly, opportunities to preserve historic buildings like Namazee Villa by making them part of new construction projects are often overlooked.